Investigating Irish and Scottish Women Writers of Children’s Literature, c. 1750-1940

A one-day symposium on Irish and Scottish women writers of children’s literature between 1750 and 1940.

The period in question witnessed major cultural and political shifts within Ireland and Scotland, yet regional and national identities have not fully been explored in children’s literature of this era in question. Colonial expansion, Irish Home Rule, the birth of the Scottish National Party, and global suffrage were all major influences on literary culture during this period. This is combined with cultural developments in women’s access to professional authorship, and the rapid diversification of print culture. And, most significantly for this symposium, the period witnessed the rapid commercialisation of children’s literature, and its first Golden Age.

Although significantly overlooked, Irish and Scottish women wrote children’s literature across various genres and forms: they played a major role in writing and illustrating fairy tales and folklore, they wrote New Girl novels of the fin de siècle, they wrote periodical stories and non-fiction for girls’ and boys’ magazines, and edited these same magazines, too (L. T. Meade and her editing of Atalanta). Many were trailblazers: the Scottish writer Dorita Fairlie Bruce was a pioneer of the school story genre; Annie S. Swan published more than 200 works in her career, while also co-founding the Scottish National Party and campaigning for suffrage.

Event Details

12 December 2025, 9:30am – 5pm GMT

1.06 Project Room, 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh

Agenda

09:30 – 10:00 Registration

10:00 – 10:15 Opening Remarks: Lois Burke & Sarah Dunnigan

10:15 – 11:05 Keynote: Pam Perkins

Looking Before and After: Christian Isobel Johnstone and the Publication of Children’s Literature

11:15 – 12:15 Panel: Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir and Gillian Beattie-Smith

Framing Iceland for the Young: Mary Gordon / Mrs Disney Leith’s Travel Writing (Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir) Margaret Hasluck: A Scottish collection of Albanian children’s folktales (Gillian Beattie-Smith)

12:15 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 14:00 Panel: Gem Kirwan and Fran Henderson

‘A swarm of Lilyputian novels’: Children’s Literature and Morality in Elizabeth Hamilton and Charlotte Brontë’s Writing (Gem Kirwan)

O happy home! Christian perfectionism and the missionary enterprise in Jane Borthwick’s stories for children (Fran Henderson)

14:15 – 15:15 Panel: Amy Wells and Jane E. Sandell

Big Houses for Little People: An Exploration of the Big House Genre and Irish Juvenile Literature (Amy Wells)

Scotland as a Reward in the Novels of Dorita Fairlie Bruce (Jane E. Sandell)

15:15 – 15:45 Tea/coffee break

15:45 – 16:45 Keynote: Beth Rodgers

‘Queen of the Girls’-Book Makers’: L.T. Meade and the Professionalisation of Authorship in the Late Nineteenth Century

16:35 – 16:45 Closing Remarks: Lois Burke & Sarah Dunnigan